‘Our Graduates are not half baked’

Nigerians especially, the teeming graduates who are roaming the streets in search of  good jobs have reacted to the recent statement by the minister for finance, Dr Okonjo Iweala that our graduates are not employable. Some of them who spoke angrily to Saturday Vanguard said that it is very wrong for her to make such a pronouncement.

Saying that they are not disputing the fact that there are some graduates who cannot make a simple correct sentence, but it is not everybody so she should stop generalizing such a thing. Some said that they do not believe that God created an empty brain, but there are some intelligent ones who have not been opportuned to showcase their talents. These are some of their views as sampled by ANOZIE EGOLE

You cannot totally condemn the minister—Kunle Akano

To me, it depends on the angle you want to take it. You cannot completely condemn the woman’s pronouncement because, you do not know what she has seen or experience before she can make such pronouncement. I believe that something must have prompted her statement.

Maybe something has happened somewhere that made her to say such a thing. Because, of recent, I heard from a human resource personnel that they were conducting interviews for some graduates, to their surprise, a graduate of English with a Second Class Upper (2.1) could not make a single correct sentence.

This particular problem goes beyond the graduates; schools too contribute to the problem. Some schools employ lecturers who are not qualified in the field for the job. For instance, in my school where I graduated from, if you come to our computer science department, most of the lecturers are not graduates of computer science. Majority of them graduated from mathematics department.

Just because they did computer science in their masters, they will be employed to lecture computer science in a higher institution. So you will be asking yourself, what has this person to offer to the students? In that case, what do you expect the students to know when the lecturer is not qualified enough for the course? The students will only produce what they were taught.

If really the government wants to solve this problem, both the government, schools and the students all have roles to play on the issue. The government has its roles in improving the schools to ensure a standard learning environment. Especially, the government should work more on our science department that needs more of practical by providing the basic equipment for the practical.

On the side of schools, they should recruit qualified lecturers who are experts in the field they are handling and not being sentimental. If you study computer science, you should be employed to lecture computer science and not the other way round. Because, I have not seen were a graduate of physics was employed to handle electricity even though they look alike.

As you need to develop yourself having in mind that the  school cannot offer you everything. School can only offer you 20 or 30% of what you need to know especially for the science students. Everybody knows that science is dynamic. What was in vogue in 2000 is gradually phasing out, unlike arts courses which are not like that.

So you as a science student need to update yourself by going to research and other professional courses. Some schools are not good in practical likewise some lecturers. Computer science graduates have a lot of work to do as far as     upgrading themselves is concerned. Because, new technologies are being discovered every day.

They are the cause of the problem—Yusuf Abiola

Actually, our government is the cause of the problem that our graduates are unemployable and I strongly believe that not all of them are like that.

Yusuf Abiola

Maybe 30 or 40% are unemployable but they are the cause of all these problems. Imagine a situation where the schools are closed down for more than four months because of strike, what do you want the students to do in that type of situation?

And the lecturers in some schools, have not been able to do research for a long time now and by this, they are lacking behind. The government or the other hand, are contributing to the.

According to UNESCO’s recommendation,26% of a country’s budget should be given to education, but that is not the case here in Nigeria. Nigerian government gives preferential treatment to where it is not necessary thereby leaving the most important thing aside.

Why they do not care about the state of our schools here is that their children are not going to school here in the country. So, they do not care if the schools are collapsing or not.

Some of their children that schooled abroad are not more intelligent than those who schooled here it is just that they are opportuned to get employed because of their parents. For me personally, I feel so bad with that particular viewpoint. I feel it is a slap on the face of every youth in this country.

That means that there is no hope of getting employed for any youth that graduates from any University in this country. It is not all of us that had the privilege to go abroad for our education.

I will advise her to resign the appointment. Because, these same youths that she said are unemployable were the youth that voted her administration into power. I will also advise the minister of education  to resign alongside with her. It is their own incompetency that made the finance minister to make such a pronouncement. The two ministries should resign. The finance minister is not allocating and supervising the budget allocated to the education ministry and the education ministry is not making good use of the allocated budget, so they should both resign.

No brain is empty—-Prinwill Agbo

I believe that there is nothing created by God that is empty, it is just that they have not been giving proper opportunity to perform. If you want to get very intelligent students, go to the public schools and the poor masses that is where you will get what you want. She should not just conclude because she tried few people, she now concluded that a country we have well over 40million graduates are unemployable. To me, it is ridiculous.

If they want to reduce that in the country, they should stop putting conditions that somebody must have First Class or Second Class upper before he/she can be employed.

Because of this, students go extra mile in getting such certificates and at the end of the day, they cannot prove it. Some even buy their results to be able to get (2.1) and you find out that the person cannot make a simple correct sentence. They should stop that and give everybody equal opportunity irrespective of what you came out with.